Oil finds support in equities despite slowing demand

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.

Vince Lombardi

Firming equity markets in the U.S. were enough to bolster oil prices after their negative start on Tuesday reversing the selling from the decline in China’s PMI data. The oil complex has been under pressure for the last several weeks as the market focuses on a weakening oil demand scenario on the back of a slowing global economy. Most of the macroeconomic data hitting the media airwaves over the last several weeks has been suggesting that economies in both the developed and emerging market world may be heading for a period of slowing… even the main economic and oil demand growth engine of the world China.

That said several equity markets around the world have been continuing on an upward path suggesting that those particular regions of the world may not be slowing but in fact actually still expanding. When I look at the individual bourses in the EMI Global Equity Index table (shown below) the equity markets that are in positive territory for the year are all in developed world countries while the emerging market countries listed in the Index are showing year to date losses. In addition most of the gainers are in countries that have very accommodative monetary policies including aggressive quantitative easing programs like Japan and the U.S. (the two largest equity gainers in the Index).